Victoria Darlene Hewitt was born June 4, 1931, in Everett, Washington, to parents Lillian Ruth (Monson) and Charles Moses Kempton Hewitt, an immigrant from Midland, Ontario, Canada. She died on April 25, 2012, at the age of 80. She attended school at East Everett Elementary and Puyallup (Washington) Junior High School and graduated from Philomath High School in Philomath, Oregon, in 1948. She enlisted in the U.S. Army immediately following her graduation. She served in several stateside billets as one of a small number of non-medical women enlisted Army soldiers in the period following WW II. She met her husband while in the military and was required by policy to accept an honorable discharge upon marriage. She regarded her time in the military as the most satisfying time of her life.
Victoria lived in Kentucky, Ohio and in Milwaukie, Newport and Lebanon, Oregon. She is survived by her children, Deborah (Rob) Shimmin, Douglas (Liz) Mitchell, Scott Mitchell, and Julie Mitchell; seven grandchildren, Tami Bellenghi, Traci Ford, Heather Mitchell, Johnny Douglas, Blake Mitchell, Chloe Mitchell and Jillian Marvin; seven great-grandchildren, Bronte Mitchell, Phoenix and Harlow Costello, Jackson and Charlotte Ford, and Luca and Gianna Bellenghi; niece, Erika Hewitt, and nephew, Cameron Hewitt. She is also survived by her brother and sister-in-law, Kempton and Fawn Hewitt. A sister, Patricia Ann Louise, died at birth, December 23, 1947.
Baptized and confirmed in the College Evangelical United Brethren Church (Philomath, Oregon), Victoria was later an active member of the Free Methodist Church. Her life was marked by devotion to her church and the practice of prayer and Bible study. In her later years, she lived with her mother in Oak Grove, and at Hope Village in Canby, Oregon. Her life was not an easy one but she was sustained by her extended family, especially her many maternal aunts, uncles and cousins, the children and grandchildren of Andrew and Louise Monson of Fargo, North Dakota, and Snohomish County, Washington. Especially dear to her were her beloved maternal aunts, Victoria Byers and Mollie Monson of Tenino, Washington. She found pleasure in contact with her maternal grandmother's family (Stene) in Shellbrook, Saskatchewan, and with the family of her paternal grandparents (Hewitt), in Toronto, Ontario. She was artistic and enjoyed painting, spending much of her time in her later years in arts and crafts. She was an avid reader and enjoyed the Nancy Drew novels of Carolyn Keene along with books by Grace Livingston Hill. Victoria faced her death without fear and full of her childhood faith. She left this earth surrounded by members of her family.
A memorial service with military honors is planned for 11 a.m. Wednesday, May 2, 2012, at the Lebanon Free Methodist Church. Private interment will take place at a later date at Zion Cemetery, Canby, the burial place of her parents.